The reformer was developed using a proprietary catalyst. Methanol reformers typically suffer from low efficiency, rapid catalyst degradation and instability and have warm up times as long as several hours. However, the Adventure AD reformer delivers 97 percent efficiency, a 35 minute warm up time and a stable and robust catalyst which the company claims will last 10,000 hours.
What is most interesting about the device is not the fact that it is a reformer, but what the company plans to do with it. They propose it as a diesel engine emission control solution which also saves the user fuel. The gas emitted by the reformer (the reformate) is 30 to 35 percent hydrogen along with nitrogen and COx. This reformate burns very well inside both petrol and diesel engines and can be drawn into these engines via the air intake. When the fuel burns alone it produces only trace levels of nitrogen oxides, NOx and particulate matter (PM). The reformate can also burn alongside diesel or petrol and when it does do emissions fall well below current regulatory limits. These emissions are responsible for respiratory disorders and large numbers of deaths even in countries with strict emission control standards.
Countries worldwide are moving to regulate smog, creating headaches for engine users. Currently, only two technologies exist to deal with NOx. These are selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR).
SCR is an after treatment which is known not to work well in the cold and requires tuning to avoid toxic ammonia emissions, while EGR, which works by circulating some of the exhaust gases back into the engine to reduce the air and to lower engine temperature, lowers the power of the engine and also increases PM which must be dealt with using a filter at the exhaust.
The Adventure reformer requires no tuning and unlike EGR and SCR co-locating it with an engine actually increases fuel economy, making it an interesting alternative in stationary engines.
But there is another use for the reformer that will turn green minded heads. Currently there is an ongoing battle between hydrogen electric cars and battery electric cars, and hydrogen is on the losing side. In hydrogen cars when the driver steps on the gas, a little hydrogen is released which reacts in a fuel cell to produce electricity. This electricity drives a motor at the wheels. Hydrogen is highly explosive, has to be carried around in heavy reinforced bottles and is expensive to produce, and Elon Musk has pointed out more than once that there is an extra efficiency loss when hydrogen is produced, often from electricity using electrolysis. These factors have conspired to limit the attractiveness of the hydrogen car.
“Now that a small efficient mobile reformer exists, however, there is a third possibility” said Michael Donelly, CEO of distributor Plaza Capital Investments. “This is a car that carries methanol in the tank and reforms it into hydrogen which the fuel cells use to make electricity. It would also carry some batteries but far fewer than current battery powered vehicles”.
Mr Donnelly added that such a vehicle solves some of the long standing issues of both hydrogen and battery vehicles - disposing of the compressed hydrogen bottles means the driver is no longer carrying a bomb, and because it tanks up with methanol the driver needs only wait a few minutes instead of the 40 minutes or more for battery vehicles to charge. In addition methanol is a renewable fuel which is completely carbon neutral when it is made from biomass.
Image: Mock-up of oxy steam methanol reformer (Michael Donelly)
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